Oh, blasted memory! I can always remember the details, but never what the details are describing!

In any case, my fav' has been ..bet? ball? bat? baal? baat? ...? It's a goddess, often portrayed as a bird (methinks) with a feather. The feather is like the scales of justice; when you die, if your soul weighs more than the feather, you're banished to ... hell? I don't want to say hell exactly, but it was some place similar, no?

Also, when describing the Egyptian's "soul", is it really correct to use that term, or should I say "ka"? From what I care to understand about Christian faith, your soul is pretty much stuck in your body, then you either go up or down when you die. However, in Egyptian culture, your "ka" is everything that is "you", and when you die, you can either float around, or hopefully enter a figurine likeness. ...Similar, but different, like a gala vs. a fuji apple.

PsyPharaoh, It was definitly Maat, if you wished to refer to "justice and equilibrium" Goddess...with the feather on her head...
The spirit in ancient egyptian culture, was not "one"...it was some way composed by three different aspects: The "Ba" the most phisical aspect of the soul, gods and kings were having many,it's the part of the soul which can move, in contrast with the mummy which is static. The "Ka" is the "double" of the person and it is the symbol of the power of creation, the endless power of the soul. The "Akh"is the life's strenght and the magic of the power of the soul....three different aspects of the same person..or soul..
If the heart of the dead was not light as the feather of Maat, than his heart was supposed to be divoured by a terrificant monster, called Ammut, who was having the head of the Crocodile, the fore part of the body of the lion (sometimes a leopard) and the rear part of a hippopotamus...this way the dead had no escape, nor in water, nor in land. Ammut was also called "The female devourer of deads"

As I was reading the information you had presented for me, I had realized that while I had already known that, I could never verbalize my knowledge. Well, I knew about most of it - the akh is new to me

I like Aset (Isis) a lot, especially when she's portrayed with wings. In Egypt I spent hours of searching for the most beautiful papyrus with Aset and finally I've bought this lovely one (without wings) where she's seater next to Ra.

Ma'at, unlike Hathor and Nephthys, seemed to be more of a concept than an actual goddess. Her name, literally, meant 'truth' in Egyptian. She was truth, order, balance and justice personified. She was harmony, she was what was right, she was what things should be. It was thought that if Ma'at didn't exist, the universe would become chaos, once again!

For the Egyptian believed that the universe was above everything else an ordered and rational place. It functioned with predictability and regularity; the cycles of the universe always remained constant; in the moral sphere, purity was rewarded and sin was punished. Both morally and physically, the universe was in perfect balance.

Because of Ma'at, the Egyptians knew that the universe, that everything in the universe, worked on a pattern, just as, later on, the Greeks called the underlying order of the universe logos (meaning, order, pattern).

"In the beginning was the logos*, and the logos* was with God and the logos* was God." - John 1:1

* Logos was the 'Word', another name for Jesus.

Egypt, then, was seen to be nothing without Ma'at.

Ma'at was reality, the solid grounding of reality that made the Sun rise, the stars shine, the river flood and mankind think. The universe itself, all the world around them, was sacred in the ancient view. "Ethics" is an issue of human will and human permission. It is a function of the human world of duality. What is "ethical" for one group is sin for another. But Ma'at, the reality that made all groups what they are is transcendent of ethics, just as a rock or a flower is amoral, a-ethical, without "truth or falsehood." How can a flower be "false" or "ethical." It just is. How can the universe be "ethical or moral, right or wrong"? It simply is. That is Ma'at.

Despite being a winged goddess (like Nephthys), she was judge at the Egyptian underworld at the Halls of Ma'ati or Halls of the Double Ma'at.

The dead person's heart was placed on a scale, balanced by Ma'at herself, or by the Feather of Ma'at (her symbol that she wore on her head was an ostrich feather).

Thoth (god of writing and scribes) weighed the heart... if the deceased had been found to not have followed the concept of ma'at during his life (if he had lied or cheated or killed or done anything against ma'at) his heart was devoured by a demon (she was called Ammut - Devouress of the Dead) and he died the final death. If the heart weighed the same as Ma'at, the deceased was allowed to go on to the afterlife.

In life, it was the pharaohs' duty to uphold ma'at. "I have done Ma'at" has been spoken by several pharaohs, as well as being called "beloved of Ma'at".

The ruler who forcibly emphasizes his adherence to Maat on his monuments in Akhenaten — the very king whom later pharaohs considered to have deviated immensely from her laws.

Ma'at, as would be logical, was also was the justice meeted out in ancient Egyptial law courts. It is likely that a "Priest of Ma'at" referred to people who were involved in the justice system, as well as being priests of the goddess herself. Temple of Ma'at

There is a small temple dedicated to Ma'at (in ruins) at Karnak. The temple is inside Precinct of Montu, the smallest of three enclosures at Karnak. The temple seems to have been built by Hatshepsut, then reconstructed by Thuthmose III. You can see a computer reconstruction of Ma'at's temple at http://www.ifrance.com/homann/t3maatec.jpg.

Ma'at did not exist until Ra rose from the waters of Nun (various gods and goddesses of Chaos). She was known as a Neter goddess, and as such, was described as a daughter of Ra. But without Ma'at, Egyptians believed that Nun would reclaim the universe. She was also thought to be the wife of Thoth, moon god and god of the wisdom.

She was, really, the most important deity of them all.

Caroline Seawright is a full time worker, part time traveler, anime and manga lover and HTML programmer! She writes many articles on or about Egypt.

Something I've wondered. Ammut, the crocodile headed soul gobbler is both associated with Ma'at as well as Anubis. I can see the connection; both deal with entering the afterlife, but what does Anubis need Ammut for? After letting the soul pass on with Ma'at's test... why hop on over to Anubis' side?

Anubis was the god of the embalming process, too. He "escorted" the soul to the weighing of the heart, and stood watching during the Judgement.
Ammut was the Devourer, and only sat watching the weighing of the heart. If the Judgement was in favor of the soul going on to the Field of Reeds, he did nothing. If the heart failed in the crucial test, Anubis would feed it to Ammut, destroying any hope for continued after-life.

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